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A26403
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An address to the nobility, clergy and gentlemen of Scotland
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1688
(1688)
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Wing A567; ESTC R217202
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4,912
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4
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AN ADDRESS TO THE Nobility Clergy and Gentlemen OF SCOTLAND NOthing is now more evident then that the present Revolutions in England could never have been effected had it been foreseen that either the King should have been Dethroned or that Any had Designed to make the Prince of Orange King. When so many out of Zeal for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion either actively Contributed their Assistance to the Prince or tamely yeilded to the common Inclination of the Multitude it was out of confidence that the Prince designed nothing but what he had published in his Declaration It was not then known what special Agents had been long before Imployed to gain the Concurrence of so many Lords Spiritual and Temporal Gentlemen and Officers in the Army to declare so boldly for the Prince nor that several of them had entred into an Association for that purpose Nor was it discovered even to the Associators themselves that any thing was Designed but in a Dutiful way to Solicite the King to Call a Free Parliament and by it to Secure our Religion and Properties So that 't is certain many who never intended to improve the Success to the Dishonour of their Avowed Allegiance were content to lay a sleep the Doctrine of Obedience to the King as only Supream Governour and that of Non-Resistance till they saw Popery underfoot and then thought to have returned to their Duty Others we know were chafed into a heat with the confident Report of Articles Signed betwixt our King and the King of France to extirpate Protestantisme of an unparallel'd Crime of the King and Queen's imposing a Prince of Wales to the prejudice of the Succession of His two Royal Daughters and of two pretended Inhumane Murders And the Mobile were by Contrivance kept up in the highest Ferment and Animated to pull down Popish Chapels and Burn their Church Stuff to prevent as they were made to believe a Massacre by the Papists till the Prince had got Possession of London the Tower and all strong Holds and Ports in England and the King was forced to Dissolve His Army and Flie for Security Then the Designers of this great Change begun to shew themselves more bare-faced and a Convention of Commons was chosen of the most active Men in all places for bringing about this Change Some of these led by Inclination and Interest others driven by the fear of being reputed Favourers of Papists or Censured for complying formerly with the King and the remainder who had contributed to this Revolution being necessitated for self Preservation have laid a new Foundation of the Monarchy of England And owning the Government to be Devolved upon the People have by Vertue of being their Representative made the Monarchy Elective which will give such an Advantage to the Old Republicans that it is to be feared none of the King's Race whilst they have or can obtain Power must enjoy the Crown longer then they please the Populace and their Patrons By these Methods matters have been brought to this pass in England whilst you the Noblemen Gentry and Subjects of Scotland by the lateness of your Convention have had time to see how the Loyal Protestants in England have been deluded how much even such as have been Active for the Prince's Interest condemn themselves for their Credulity and with what Resentment and Indignation they endeavour to make it appear to the World how much they detest the late Proceedings So that it is most evident that the King hath now more Cordial Protestant Friends in all the Countryes of England then ever he had before not only out of a Compassion for His Sufferings but out of a true sense of the greatest Injustice done to Him that was ever done to any Lawful King except His Royal Martyrd Father and in one Circumstance out doing that and all former Precedents in that His Nephew and Son in Law and His own Daughter without any remorse are placed in His Throne Besides these Considerations they reflect upon the inevitable Calamities which must attend so unnatural and unjust a Violence for besides that it will entail a War upon our Posterity till the King have Right done Him we shall be utterly ruined by the Charge of supporting this new Title and loose our Trade to the Dutch or be necessitated to Fight for it after our Navies and Ports are subjected to them and by this they having got an Inlet to inspect our Strength and Revenue we shall never be able to hold out against their Incroachments For I think it is now obvious to all that the Assistance given to the Prince by the States and the Princes Confederates against France was not for Religion but to put the Government here into such hands as might at present actually strengthen them against that Great Monarch All these Particulars are now as conspicuous to you as the Sun at noon day and the only excuse the Army and Loyal Protestants of England have for their inglorious Deserting of the King is that these things were by great Arts hid from their eyes and they saw no appearance of them till the Convention had made a considerable progress towards their new Settlement However besides this perspicuity of the Design from first to last which is now manifest to you you cannot have that Plea for your Excluding the King which the Convention here have made most use of viz. That Popery could not be otherwise kept out but by making the Prince of Orange King because the King had a numerous Party of Roman Catholicks in England and that the King had Abdicated the Government and so the Throne was become Vacant For you have at least a Thousand Protestants in Scotland for one Papist and as to the Abdication all your Ministers of State and Justice as well as Military Forces act by His Majesty's Commissions whilst He is beyond the Seas as well as they did whilst He was at London and you have no Duch Forces to supersede your actings So that if you should now Abdicate your King you have neither ignorance of the Design of the King's Enemies nor an over-awing force nor any colourable Plea for your excuse to the World. It cannot be forgotten by you how great a Stain it was to your Nation that a Party there having the whole power of your Kingdom in their hands and in actual Conjunction with their Rebellious Brethren in England sold His Majesty's Father to the Parliament and Army in England and how dearly you paid Interest for the Money which was the Price of your Sovereign's Blood whom they so Barbaroursly Murdered Nor is it here to be forgot how Zealously you have laboured to wash away that Stain How earnestly your Commissioners then Expostulated and Remonstrated against that Pious Princes being brought to a Tryal How that in some measure you did recover your Reputation by calling back and Crowning King Charles II. and by assisting the Lord General Monk in that Glorious Expedition of his from
your Countrey to bring the King back to the Throne of His Ancestors And how in later times you stood firm for the Succession in the direct Line when so many of these very Gentlemen that now Compose the House of Commons had Voted our King unqualified for the Crown If you remember these Reparations of your Honour with joy and satisfaction let me tell you you have now a more Glorious oportunity to Eternize your Loyalties and make yourselves Famous to all Posterity by your Justice and Fidelity to your King. You justly chalenge a pre-eminence in that the Lineal Succession of your Kings is derived from an Antienter Original than that of most Nations in the World and tho' some interruptions have happened by violent Factions and Ambition yet the direct Line hath been re-stated and the Usurpers have been Marked with a most black Character in all succeding Ages But I do not at present remember in your Histories that at any time since you were a Kingdom your Ancestors ever had a more Meritorious Cause to signalize their Honour Loyalty and Justice than you have in this present Juncture of Affairs There are no Nations in Europe that have not had Experience of your Valour and Gallantry in Feats of Arms And will it not be an Eternal Blemish to your Honour that you atchieve so great Renown abroad in defence of other Princes Rights and suffer your own Natural Leige Lord to be an Exile and decline to vindicate His Right in your own Native Countrey The supporting the Rights of your Lawful King and standing firm to your Laws and Allegiance is that which will gain to your selves your Sons Brethren and Relations Fame and Glory in the Courts and Camps of Foreign Princes and you and your Posterity may see your numerous Progeny rise to Honour Wealth and Great Command again in the Guards and Armies of the Greatest Potentates when they find you so Loyal to your Lawful Distressed King. For there is nothing in the World that furnisheth any with such invincible Charmes as Justice and Loyalty to ones undoubted Sovereign You must all be satisfy'd that the King hath a most indisputable Right to His Crown you know how desirous He is to Indulge to all His Peaceable Subjects the free enjoyment of their Religious Worship You know that His endeavour to enrich His People in Trade and give them this Liberty of Conscience are the principal causes of His Sufferings and you may be assured that if in this Juncture you do your Duty to which you are obliged by the Laws of God and all your own Laws and Oaths which ought to be Great Weighty and Sacred Obligations to you His Majesty will industriously endeavour to promote your publick and personal Advantages It will be dishonourable in the utmost degree to have a Foreign King imposed on you that are a Free People and have a Sovereign of your own for Whom if you now Declare and Assert His Right you will have the cheerful concurrence of a numerour Party of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Gentlemen of England who even under the Power and Forces of their King's Enemies dare be Loyal and the very concurring with the Laws and the Suffrages of all Just Men will easily restore the King to His Throne where being once Peaceably Seated besides the Honour and Glory of so Great an Action you may be assured you will want nothing either the King or the Just Loyal or Religious Party of England in gratitude can do for you to make you Rich and Happy I know they who think to bait you with the hope of gain and by that means make you renounce your Allegiance to your King tell you a fair Story That they will obtain for you the so long projected Union of the Kingdoms but I hope you remember how you were used when the Usurper Cromwell granted you the same You got nothing by it but the maintaining his Army and the Building of Cittadels to keep you in subjection the imposing of English Judges as well as their Laws upon you and some of your Representatives were English Officers and Gentlemen that knew nothing of your Countrey and the rest were so few that in every thing they were out-Voted And I can assure you from the mouths of Great Men in both Houses of Parliament that some do positively say They will never grant you the Favour to joyn your small Stock with theirs and others do ingeniously confess That they shall never be able to effect it tho' they Judge the putting you in hopes of it may make you more easie to comply I hope therefore you will not forsake the King's Interest which only can make you Renowned and Happy for an empty Shadow It is your acting like Persons of Honour and Justice and firmly adhearing to your King that must give you the best advantages both abroad and at home The King will never forget your kindness to Him and you may not be only assured of all advantages you can propose to your selves that are in His Power to Grant but you will have them made durable not only for His Life but as long as the Crown remains in the direct Line Nay should it ever Descend to those who snatch it before their time you will then be looked upon as worthy of Honour and Confidence for having now vindicated the Rights of the King and His Lawful Successors For whatever may be said or done by any who eagerly seek to obtain an unjust Possession yet every Man that acts upon Principles of Honour and Justice will certainly be better esteemed even by such than they who servily or tamely concur with unjust Usurpers For tho' to gain the Point they aim at they offer all plausible Arguments to procure a Concurrence yet they are sensible that they act unjustly and cannot so hush their Consciences but at some time or other they will fly in their Faces and tell them Truth You also know that before the Prince had Published his Declaration the King had Granted most of those things which in the said Declaration were marked out as the most impulsive Causes of his Invasion and you have no Grievances to be redressed nor any Security you can wish for your Religion and Property or desire any good Laws for the publick Weal and Benefit of the Kingdom that the King will deny or refuse to gratifie you with in a Parliamentary way If then you will consult the quiet of your Consciences the Justice Honour and Prosperity of your Nation the Laws of your Land your Repute abroad with all Good Men the Weal of your Posterity and avert the Judgments of God which sonner or later overtake all perfidious and unjust Actions If you will chear the Hearts and strengthen the Hands of the Loyal and Consciencious in England It is only to be done by declaring your selves true to the King Abhorrers of all Usurpations and Maintainers of your Laws which Resolution in you all Loyal Good Men will Honour you for and Assist you in their Defence and God Almighty will Blesâ— you here and to Eternity in the Accomplishment of them FINIS